St Mary's Calne
It was brilliant to welcome back senior students to take part in a 2024 Pre-Season Lacrosse and Hockey Training Programme, while new Fourth Form students joined us for a fun introduction to Lacrosse and Hockey.
Pre-Season Training
The 2024 Pre-Season programme gave senior students the opportunity to take part in a range of activities in order to get ready for the start of the lacrosse and hockey seasons, as both sports take place in the Autumn Term.
The first morning saw students arrive at the Southern Academy of Sport specialist performance facility to take part in strength and conditioning exercises. The specialist coaches put our students through testing as well exercises to help them understand and build on what they need to do through the season. The experience also included a talk on nutrition and how to fuel for sport to give them an advantage. After a break for lunch and recovery, students moved onto the hockey session, led by Miss Cox and supported by an external coach, where students were able learn new skills and ideas for playing and tactics which they can use throughout the season.
The second day was focussed on lacrosse, with five schools (SMC, CLC, Stowe, Sherborne, Marlborough) coming together at Marlborough College. The day began with all players being mixed in groups, allowing them to meet and train with different players while being coached, including current England Lacrosse players. An afternoon of game play as school teams, allowed the participants to put into practice what they had learnt as well as dust of the cobwebs from the long summer break. It was great to see some of the younger players moving up from U15 lacrosse stepping up and playing with senior players. Although scores were not recorded, SMC played well scoring more than the opposition in all games.
Hockey and Lacrosse Taster Day
All our new Fourth Form students were invited to a Hockey and Lacrosse Taster Day to have a go and learn the skills for the two main sports of the Autumn Term. This was a fantastic opportunity for pupils to be able to learn and play the games but also to meet their peers who would also be starting SMC at the same time.
The sports activities were led by SMC staff and gave an opportunity for staff to meet the pupils and give them an idea of sport at SMC. This was a great event for all pupils and we look forward to running this annually.
Mr David Abini - Head of Lacrosse